In the 20th Century, about 20 species of eriophyoids were listed for the Maltese Islands but these reports
were entirely based on plant gall surveys. In these last four years, plant collections were made in order to
investigate the species of eriophyoids present in Malta and Gozo. Most of the earlier reports have been
confirmed and eight species were found to be new for the Maltese islands: Aceria caulobia (Nalepa) gall-making
on Suaeda vera Gmelin; Aceria onychia (Nalepa) on Phlomis fruticosa L.; Aceria sheldoni (Ewing) on lemon; Aculus
tetanothrix (Nalepa) gall-making on Salix sp.; Cecidophyopsis hendersoni (Keifer) on yucca; and three species
associated with olive, Ditrymacus athiasella Keifer, Oxycenus maxwelli (Keifer) and Tegolophus hassani ( Keifer).
Additional remarks were included for Acalitus phloeocoptes (Nalepa), collected on cherry plum, whose earlier
Maltese record was doubtful. A complete morphometric description of Aceria carlinae (Nalepa) is here
provided.peer-reviewe
